Rail bond



P. P. PIPES July 17, 1934.

RAIL BOND Original Filed April 2. 1929 Fatenied July 17, 1934 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFECE RAIL BOND Pliny P. Pipes, Mansfield, Ohio, assignorto The Ohio Brass Company, Mansfield, Ohio, a corporation of New Jersey3 Claims.

My invention relates to the method and means for bonding rails, that is,efficiently connecting two or more rails which are required to carrycurrent.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a method of positioningthe bond to the rail surface to which it is to be welded and an otherobject is to give to the bond a desired formation at the time ofapplication and to provide a tool for maintaining the bond in saidformed condition.

In the drawing accompanying this specificationz- Fig. 1 is a view inelevation of one form of my invention prior to its application to therail.

Fig. 2 is an end view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view of my bond secured to a forming and holding deviceprior to its application to a rail. 20 Fig. i is a side view of Fig. 3with the bond and holding device in position upon the side surface of arail prior to the welding operation securing the bond to the rail.

Fig. 5 is a side view of the rail and one terminal to show the manner inwhich the terminal is attached to the rail.

It is found that bonds having the flexible porion of copper have arelatively short life under steam road service due apparently to thesevere conditions at the joints as trains of many cars pass over suchjoints. Bonds, however, formed of a body composed of a plurality ofwires of high tensile strength such as those of iron, carbon steel oralloyed steel will have a far greater life than a bond having a copperbody and apparently the higher the tensile strength the greater thelife, but as the tensile strength increases or the carbon content of thesteel increases the body will yieldably resist formation to a greaterdegree and the body may possess such a high resistance to forming thatit is quite difficult to form the body and have it maintain such formprior to its attachment to the rail.

I have therefore devised a tool by means of which the flexible portionof the bond may be given the proper formation before the bond is appliedto the rail and to maintain such formation while the bond is beingapplied. After such a bond has been welded to the rail the formationwill be maintained without the assistance of the tool.

It might be said in explanation that the heat treatment to which thebody wires are subjected will affect materially the life and springproperties of the bonded body.

In making up a bond of my improved construction, I prefer a body 1 witha ferrous or non-ferrousterminal 2 on one or both ends and fixedlysecured thereto with or without an interposed sleeve 3. 1 prefer theterminal of ferrous metal and the sleeve may be of ferrous or nonferrousmetal. The terminal 2 may be stamped from a sheet to the desired shapeand then formed to fit t -e body, after which it is secured to the bodywith a greater or less degree of pressure and with or without the sleeve3. If sufiicient compression is used the wires of the body will be foundto make impressions in the sleeve or surface of the terminal providingthe sttock from which the terminal is made is softer ?0 than the bodyand when the sleeve 3 is of copper or other non-ferrous materials, thecopper tends to flow into the voids between the outer wires of the body.

The terminal is composed of the tubular portion 4 and the projectingportion 5 supports the fused attaching metal 6 in fused relation to theend face of the body, the terminal, the sleeve and rail. The bodyprojects beyond the end of the part i and forms with the end of theterminal an end face disposed substantially oblique to the longitudinalaxis of the terminal. The terminal may be made of other shapes to meetrequirements, or from seamless tubing.

I may make the body of a ferrous or a nonferrous metal or of ferrousmetal with a copper core.

The forming and holding tool comprises a body member 9 which overhangsthe rail and a portion 10 provided with projections 11 spaced apart andso alined that the body 1 can be positioned between the projections 11and thereby held in a formed shape until finally welded to the rail andthe body will thereafter maintain its formed position having a loopshaped portion at the center. This loop portion is esential in that itadds to the flexibility of the bonded body and permits longitudinalmovement of the rail.

It should. be noted that if the bonded body tends to maintain or assumea straight line position as shown in Fig. 1 due to its resiliency, thatthe members 11 will resist return movement of the cable to a straightform. The forming tool has a portion 12 which projects from the member 9and rests upon the upper surface of the rail 13 and is also providedwith a weighted portion 14, which, to a considerable extent balances thetool against the combined weight of the portion 10 and the bond.Therefore, it

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is merely necessary after positioning the bond between the lugs 11 toplace the tool upon the rail with the terminals 2 against the sidesurface of the rail and the over-balanced weight of the bond and portion10 will cause the terminals to maintain their contact with the railuntil welded into position.

In welding, a heating flame of the electric are or oxy-acetylene burnermay be used, with v which those skilled in the art are familiar andeither a ferrous welding metal or a non-ferrous metal such as copper orbronze, may be used. Phosphor-copper and silicon-copper, give very goodresults. When the arc method is used with a metallic electrode in placeof a carbon electrode, the parts are fused by the electric arc and themolten electrode is deposited on the terminal member and end of the bodymember and against the rail surface, thus uniting each to the other bythe metal from the electrode.

The body member 1 is preferably made of a plurality of strands which areeach composed of a plurality of wires which in turn are preferablypreformed before being placed in the strands and the strands arepreformed before being made into the body or cable. This permits cuttingthe cable to proper length without the ends flying apart and is a veryvaluable feature in aiding in the manufacture of the bond. Also theusual stresses due to ordinary stranding are neutralized by preforming.

When the body is of a ferrous metal the sleeve 3 may best be made of aferrous metal thereby preventing electrolytic action between the sleeveand body which is likely to take place when the sleeve is of copper andat the expense of the ferrous body next to the inner end of theterminal. If the body and terminal are of ferrous metal and no sleeve 3used, there is only ordinary corrosion of the parts.

This application is a division of my co-pending case Serial No. 351,883filed April 2nd, 1929, which has matured into Patent Number 1,865,723.

There are modifications which will suggest themselves to those skilledin the art and which will fall within the scope of my invention,therefore I wish to be limited only by my claims.

I claim:--

1. The method of applying bonds to rails by welding, the bonds having aterminal of metal at each end of the body, comprising the steps ofapplying a protecting and forming tool to the body which will protectthe body from the welding flame and hold the body in a preformedcondition with the terminals substantially aligned and exposed andprojecting away from the said tool, then positioning the bond and toolon the rail with the body protected by the tool and with the terminalsarranged for welding to the rails, then applying a heating flame to theterminals and adjacent rail surfaces and applying welding metal in afused state to the terminals and rail surface to unite them and thenremoving the said tool.

2. The method of bonding rails by welding thereto a bond having aflexible body and a terminal at each end, comprising the steps ofapplying to the body a protecting and body holding tool having meansprojecting from one face thereof to engage the bond body to give andmaintain a predetermined amount of loop to the body while applying thebond to the rail and to protect the body from the welding flame andpermit the terminals to project from the tool with their axes inalignment, then positioning the bond and tool on the rail, then applyinga heating flame to the terminals and adjacent rail surface andsimultaneously applying welding metal to unite the terminals and railand then removing the tool.

3. The method of bonding rails with bonds having as initially made aresilient body strongly resisting permanent forming extending betweenterminals and with the axis of the bond body substantially straight andin alignment with the terminals, comprising the steps of detachablysecuring to the body prior to positioning the bond on the rail a bondingtool having a flame protecting member with forming means thereonarranged to engage the body at spaced points along its length betweenthe body ends and per mit the ends to project beyond the protectingmember and give the body a predetermined curvature and maintain suchcurvature and protect the body from the welding flame during the weldingof the bond to the rail, then positioning the bond and tool in place onthe rail and then applying a heating flame to the bond terminals and theend face of the body to secure the body to the rail ends and thenremoving the bonding tool, the said predetermined curvature of the bodybeing maintained after the bonding tool is removed.

PLINY P. PIPES.

